A vegetarian food blog with unique and interesting recipes from all over the world mainly focused on South Indian Cuisine.
Pita Pocket Salad – A candid and a crunchy protein-packed salad with garbanzo beans filled inside the pita pockets coated with hummus. It is a delicious and a balanced meal for your lunch box. Check out the salad dressing and how I pack this Pita pocket salad wrap for my lunch.
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I love cheese and lettuce wraps and when we saw the chicken wraps in the PF Chang’s menu, we converted it to Tofu wrap and we loved it. It was yummy and crunchy. I thought of reproducing the same at home. It came out pretty good. Water chestnuts is the key ingredient which gives you the crunchiness. This wrap is sweet and salt with a hint of spiciness.
Ingredients:
Steps:
That’s it now the filling is ready.
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
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I got this idea of roti rolls from Ani. Best way to sneak in vegetables and easy to pack for lunch also. I wanted to add a little twist to the regular curry so thought of making it like frankie. I wanted to say this is completely my version of aloo frankie. I have never been to Mumbai and never tasted a frankie there. Just including the ingredients according to our likes.
I used the left over potato-onion curry for this roll. You can find the recipe here. I used big jeera or fennel seeds while tempering.
Here is what you need for the roll: (Please adjust the measurements according to your taste)
Ingredients:
Steps:
Thats it yummy and mess free aloo frankie is ready. Perfect for lunch box too.
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
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What happens when cheese is fried?? Ooyii goooyi and of course yummy. When kiddo gets bored of cheddar cheese sticks, I make these fried cheese cubes. Covered with bread crumbs, this is not only kids favorite, but ours too. Who would say no to these yummy fried cubes?
Ingredients:
Steps:
That’s it. Yummy cheese snack is ready.
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
For this week’s blogging Marathon, the theme is “Say Cheese”. The first one is simple and a popular dish. A perfect kids friendly dish. I know this is a Mexican dish but I still go with cheddar and mozzarella cheese because of kiddo’s taste preference.
I got to explore about cheese only after coming to US. While in India, I didn’t even realize there are this many cheese varieties. All I knew was Britannia and Amul cheese :-) Paneer is also very rare in our household. I grew up eating typical Brahm food.
My first awwwww moment was in Subway asking what cheese I wanted in my sub. I had no clue about cheddar, pepper jack or swiss cheese. M asked me to go with swiss and I promptly nodded my head. But foodie in me, made to read all about these cheese and their making process.
Here are the two cheese varieties that you find in my fridge. The other ones come and go on required basis.
Cheddar: Ok, coming to cheddar you have multiple varieties with in itself like mild, sharp, yellow, white etc. I usually get the mild yellow cheddar and its kiddo’s favorite. It’s from cow’s milk and one of the most consumed cheese in the world. I used them for quesadilla, any cheese toast, just as snack even.
Mozzarella: This cheese is made from buffalo milk. I usually add them in salads. Mozzarella balls with basil, tomatoes drizzled with balsamic yummmmm.
Ingredients:
Steps:
That’s it. Now cut them in triangle shapes and yummy Quesadilla is ready.
Note:
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
I know pongal is not today. As I have other recipe post for tomorrow, I am posting it today. Anyways its Bhogi so here I am..
Pongal at our household was always with fun and fight.
But the moment we moved to Madras, I started missing those backyard pongal and in US literally nothing. No timings and all, just do the pongal before going to office, a quick neivedhyam and you are done with pongal festival. Thats what going to happen tomorrow. No sugarcane, no fresh coconut nothing. We always wish for what we don’t have right?
At least this year, in kiddo’s Tamil school they are celebrating pongal and they had competitions like drawing, singing, Tamil Elocution and couple more. I am glad they did so that I could explain him about the festival and its importance and all that stuff. I asked kiddo if he wanted to participate in any of these. I didn’t surprise me when he said yes to drawing but when he said yes to singing I was bit surprised. I know he learns music and all that. But doing it for a competition that too this particular Tamil song, I didn’t expect that. I am so happy because, I sang Bharathiyar song for my first competition and kiddo now sang Bharathiyar song too for his competition, but different songs though. Thanks to our music teacher who taught him song and perfected his tune and I hope he rendered the song without killing Tamil (He needs to improve his zh ). She made him sing at a different stage the same day. Also she taught the same song for me to play in veenai too. Glad that my first Tamil song in veenai was Mahakavi’s. (Errr I am a big fan of him.)
Here is his rendering and here is the picture that we taught him to draw for the competition. Only God knows what he did. We can see the pictures only on Jan 18th.
Wishing you all a very Happy Pongal.
Before letting you go, you can find my pongal recipes here. Both are easy versions. I do it in pressure cooker. :-)
This tag is especially for you BM. When she was talking about tags, I thought of make one but of course food related one for the blogathon. I hope it’s not so difficult.
Rules are pretty simple:
13 questions:
Here are my answers:
Please feel free to pick up this tag and pass it on to others. If I have missed someone here, I am really sorry.
BM, Freaky Veggie, Ani, Maya, Tharani, VayadiPennu, GB, SS
For the third day for the bread stubs, I am preparing kulcha. Instead of plain kulcha, I thought of preparing onion kulcha. I love kulchas as they are easy to make at home. Its pretty much like bhatoora dough but with less curd and addition of milk. I usually let it sit for 4 hrs and I have used active yeast when I don’t have baking soda and baking powder. It comes out well. I have tried with and without yeast.
Ingredients:
For Sprinkling:
Steps:
Serve hot with your favorite gravy.
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
The second bread stub that I am doing is Makki Di Roti in South Indian Style and using white corn meal. I usually get white corn meal for dusting for pizza stone. Apart from corn bread and pudding, I use it for making this roti. I make it similar to ragi roti. Usually we have this with Sarson ki Saag, but as I am making this in south Indian Style, the side dish is also South Indian style spinach curry :-)
Ingredients:
Steps:
Thats it, yummy and crispy roti is ready.
Serve hot with butter and saag. As this roti has onion and chillies, you can eat it with pickle or ketchup too. 
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
For the second week of Blogging Marathon, the theme is Bread Stubs and I need pick three from this wiki list. The first one that I am picking is Bhatoora. Bhatoora may sound difficult but its very easy and similar to poori. The only thing is you need to prepare the dough little ahead and leave for minimum 5 hrs. Vaandu likes poori very much. He calls bhatoora as white poori and the other one as brown poori :-) If I am planning to do this dish, I usually prepare the dough before going to work. So the dough sits for pretty much 8 hrs. Seriously, planning makes cooking very easy.
Ingredients:
Steps:
As I mentioned in my other post, I usually make the channa masala in the South Indian Style. Here is the recipe for the channa.
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
Along with my regular bulk purchases in Costco, I buy Vinegar in bulk too. So I get two of the above.
Wait wait, I don’t use them for cooking but for cleaning. Apart from cooking, vinegar can be used as a cleaning agent and it’s a great cleaning agent. Nothing can be matched to vinegar when it comes to cleaning. :-) :-)I am very finicky about my vessels especially when it comes to kitchen and I want it to be clean. When you see my kitchen and my closet, you cannot believe that it is maintained by same person. I do clean my closets but not like my kitchen. ;-) ;-)
Here is how I use vinegar,
One thing about vinegar is its strong smell. I need to wear mask while cleaning the car for sure. I cannot handle the strong odour. But in spite of that I love vinegar. More than for cooking, I use vinegar for cleaning.
We all know Saravana Bhavan Hotel chain is popular world-wide. This article from NY times made it very popular especially among my colleagues. We have two branches in Bay Area, one in Sunnyvale and other in Fremont. My colleagues wanted to try food here and so we all decided to go for dinner. Believe it or not, they all fell in love with dosai and Bhatura right away :-) I have tried Saravana bhavan in Anna Nagar, Vadapalani and in Singapore and of course in Bay area. I don’t know how they maintain the same taste in all their branches.
My favorite food in Saravana Bhavan is Channa bhatura, Onion Rava Dosa and their puli kuzhambu. If you notice the side dish for the bhatura, it will be typical South Indian flavored gravy. I love it with the bhatura. I thought why not try the same at home. I tried replicating, but I won’t say I got it 100%. But here is what I tried,
[recipe title=”South Indian Style Channa Masala” Time=”Soak Time 5 hrs + Prep Time 40 mts” difficulty=“Medium”]Prep Work:
Soak 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans for unto 5 hrs and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles.
Ingredients:
Steps:
Serve hot with Roti or Bhatoora.
[/recipe]
I don’t eat curd/yogurt rice. I know being a Bram how can I be like this? How can a meal get completed without curd rice? Errrr I think I can survive. ;-) ;-)
Ok, like a typical iyer aathu ponnu (Bram girl), I was also eating curd rice regularly till 12th grade. I don’t like sour curd. So my amma make sure the curd is not sour and spoiled me giving curd rice according to my taste. (Blame it on Amma). In my UG hostel, the curd used to be so sour that I stopped eating curd rice. Instead I used to have butter milk. By the end of 4 yrs, I literally stopped eating curd rice. Amma tried to inculcate the habit again but it went in vain. This continued while working too and when I came to US my hubby tried getting me different brands/styles of yogurt but nothing worked. Honestly the yogurt here is like ice cream only. I can have them along with sugar but not with rice. My in-laws and hubby never forced any eating habits. Eat healthy and eat what you like is their motto. So I forgot the concept of curd rice itself.
Now coming to vaandu’s story, as I don’t eat curd rice, I didn’t give curd rice to this guy also. :-) :-) (What a great mom right?) But gave him lot of Gogurt (flavored yogurt tubes) and I made sure he got enough protein and probiotic, so hubby and in-laws didn’t bother about it either. Every time when I go to India, my mom and grandma used to scold me for not giving him curd rice. I just ignored telling the same that I give him flavored yogurt.
But recently this hero of mine stopped eating that also, so no yogurt in any form. I feel so bad and guilty. I should have at least tried giving him curd rice. I am not ready to force him to eat curd rice or flavored yogurts. So I am blaming it on myself and feeling guilty as usual. :-( :-( What all to worry about in parenting right?
Do you have any experience like this?
As I mentioned on Jan 1st, along with Blogathon, I am starting this year with Blogging Marathon and the first week theme is American Street Food. :-) I count say no to that them. I have been to other states of US, but never ventured about the food much. So the three dishes that I am planning to do will be California’s street food which I am more familiar with. :-)
So coming to Californian food, you can see a lot of Mexican influence and in SFO bay you can find a lot of fusion food too. Our favorite hangout place is University Avenue in Palo Alto. You can find Indian fusion, Umami burgers, crepes, Burmese, Thai and what not. Summer evenings are the perfect time. Listening to the music bands and having food is always bliss. For typical Tamil Nadu food, you have south bay where you can find Murugan Idly Kadai, Aachi’s aapa kadai, Madras Cafe, Saravana Bhavan, Komala Vilas and more. El Camino Real in Santa Clara is known for its food places. :-)
Besides fast foods and restaurants, food trucks are very popular here. I love food trucks and especially Taco trucks. Food trucks have their own schedule and they post well ahead where they are going to be and you can plan accordingly. One of my favorite food trucks is 333. It’s a taco truck and they do fusion tacos like Paneer Tikka Taco and Korean Tofu tacos. I love these two tacos very much. Today’s dish is going to be Korean BBQ style taco. Basically the Korean sauce is sweet and spicy. It’s a great combo with the tacos and Kiddo’s loves this dish very much.
The base vegan bbq sauce recipe is taken from here. I slightly modified the version and went with what I had. But I am using silken tofu so that I can crumble it easily. You can always opt for extra firm tofu too.
Ingredients:
Steps:
Submitting this post for Blogging Marathon #48 – A 3 day marathon for 4 weeks
Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging marathoner doing BM#48
My holiday season started with full masti. I met Vidya of Traditionally Modern Food and Malar of Malar’s kitchen. It was a last minute plan. Both their trips to Bay got finalized only two weeks before Christmas and from that point we started planning about this meet. It was pretty difficult to coordinate. I had guests visiting, Malar had some family get together and had to return back on Sunday and Vidya with sick kid and preplanned trips. Amidst of all these we successfully managed to squeeze in some time for us and we met. Hurrrrrayyyyy!!! :-) :-) :-)
The best part was when we met, we started talking to each other as if we knew for years. I know we were chatting and whatsapping for past 6 months but still… People who saw us chatting and laughing wouldn’t have believed if we told them that we are virtual friends and meeting for the first time. Malar came to my place and we drove together and met Vidya. It was total fun.
Being food bloggers we spoke about food and all the restaurants in south bay and of course about traffic and weather. ;-) (One was mentioning Bay is very cold and the other was telling its not cold at all. Me as usual like every others in Bay area was warning about the wind factor and the unpredictable weather.) We kept talking about food to such an extent that we forgot to order food for ourselves. Then for namesake we ordered some food and continued our chatting. I don’t know if there was any topic left out. We discussed about parenting, cinema, work, studies, Facebook, Pinterest, family, our natives and what not?
I need to agree it was a very short visit and one and half hours was not enough for three of us. But we were glad that at least we met and were able to spend some time together. We are no more virtual friends. :-) :-) :-)
Will see you all with a recipe post tomorrow. :-)
PS1: The New Year’s day was calm and quiet. Spent good quality time with the family and saw the telugu movie Manam. Cute movie and finally Samantha got some screen space to act and in that trio my vote is for Nagarujanaaa.. Sighhhhh!!!!! ;-)
PS2: Signed up for good reads challenge. But only 12 books :-) Lets see how it goes.
Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year. A New Year and a new beginning. I am starting this year with two events, first one Blogathon and the second Blogging Marathon 3 day marathon for 4 weeks marathon. Let the fun/madness/craziness begin. As I have talked about 2014 here and here, I am starting with the resolutions :-)
So this is not going to be a recipe post but my New Year resolution post. I don’t know if I will be able to follow it or not but what’s wrong in writing them? (kaasa, panama, summa ezhuduvom).
I don’t have that many resolutions.
That’s it. Not too much right. I hope I can do this. Let’s see. :-)
I really love this dialogue in VTV where Trisha tells the hero – I have promised my dad that I won’t meet you and our hero Simbu replies back telling that promises are meant to be broken. So resolutions can be broken too. I will be the only one to talk about breaking the resolutions while make it. ;-) ;-)
Wishing you all a Happy New Year again. :-)
Image Source: Freepik.com
